Remember I've never done this before, but I am a firm believer in doing a project well, and I have a lot of patience.
I've dug a trench. I did have some help yesterday and I was pressured a bit by my (well meaning but pain in the butt!) dad to move a little quicker than I have been. We put a layer of stone down and some paver base. The problem is there is still a decent slope in the trench. (in the photo below the ground slopes from bottom of the screen to the top). Somebody who has done this before said I should probably build up to the higher end by digging deeper on the low end and adding an extra row of rocks.
You may be able to detect the slope of the trench in this picture.
http://tinyurl.com/czn3f2
I know I should have done this better before adding the stone, but I set the stones to the desired height, 3 rows up. I then pulled a string so that it was at the same height and then I used a line level to make sure the string was level.
http://tinyurl.com/cdqc82 http://tinyurl.com/dxlgtq http://tinyurl.com/dc7b2s
I am now going to have to work on digging the low end deeper. So I will remove the stone we put down and dig deeper to add an additional row of stone, otherwise if I try to level the low end with the high end, some of the first row will not be below grade. Rookie mistake, but I will fix it.
Some earlier pics
http://tinyurl.com/ccf438 http://tinyurl.com/dbhb5l http://tinyurl.com/cl84bm
Thanks for taking a look.
more posts...